Ackbar of Mon Cala
by Bearthsong
Summary: Captain Gial Ackbar, together with his family and friends, deal with a mysterious dark force which operates from the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean world of Mon Cala. This is my version of the story of Ackbar's early days, before he became an admiral.
1. Ocean Hunter

2

 _ **Ackbar of Mon Cala**_

(A Fan-Fiction story based on the character of Admiral Ackbar (first seen in _The Return of the Jedi)_ of the water planet Mon Cala (Dac). The story depicts Ackbar's earlier days, taking place some time before the events of the prequel and before The Battle of Mon Calamari.) _**(** **Star Wars created by George Lucas)**_

 _ **Chapter One: Ocean Hunter**_

Gial Ackbar swam gently through the corals of his world's great ocean. He paused every few minutes as he searched for _kroork,_ the tiny crustaceans which were a favorite meal among the members of his species. This particular species of beings (known as the _Mon Calamari,_ or _Mon Cals_ for short _)_ were amphibious, but also possessed the features of a fish. As Gial swam, his complex gill system allowed for constant oxygen and carbon dioxide gas exchange while he was underwater; and yet he was equally at home above the water breathing air, equipped as he was with a hardy set of lungs. At present, his pulmonary arteries were closed, but they would open again the moment he reached the surface.

Gial presented a strange contrast between land and sea. He was bipedal and yet his hands and feet were webbed. His body resembled that of a Human, and yet his salmon-colored skin was shinier than the dry epidermis of a mammal. His bulbous eyes stuck out fish-like from his large domed cranium, capable of moving and seeing in any direction.

The temperature in the amphibian humanoid's hemisphere was warm to hot most of the year, as Gial inhabited the southern half of the aquatic world that was known throughout the galaxy as _Mon Cala,_ but also referred to as "Dac" in several local dialects.

When he was above the surface of the waves, Gial wore clothing to protect his skin; but when he went underwater, they were mostly a hindrance. Gial Ackbar, like most Mon Cals, preferred to swim naked whenever he had a choice in the matter. During the underwater military drills, of course, he wore his wet-suit uniform but today he was not involved in a drill. It was the season of _Haatha,_ a religious festival that involved meditation, feasts, and solitary swims in order to purify the soul. The festival gave Gial the permission he needed to take a short rest from his responsibilities as Captain of the Guard of Mon Cala, based in Coral Depths City. It was a rare occasion when he was able to spare the time to immerse himself in the luxury of the solo hunt.

 _At last,_ he thought, _I am blessed with the opportunity of purifying myself in the deep coral forest, cleansed until I am once more as innocent as a Tad hatching into his parents' Birth-Pond. It is here, alone underwater, where I can feel The Force swimming through me._

Gial was weary of the skirmishes that had continuously cropped up between his people and the _Quarren,_ a second, squid-like group of humanoids that shared the beautiful aqua-planet with their Mon Cal brethren. Historically, the two groups of beings had always competed over hunting territories, but as they all became more technologically advanced it was foolish to continue the old grudges. He had been involved recently in aiding King Yos Kolina of Mon Cala in his negotiations to maintain peace between the more aggressive tribes, but progress was aggravatingly slow.

The Mon Calamari people knew that the time for planetary unity was drawing near, and that they needed to strengthen their ties with the Quarren so that both races would not be ripe for manipulation by outside political forces. At present, The King and his Council were taking a conservative stance in favor of supporting the long-standing Galactic Republic, but the Quarren were being drawn in by groups which encouraged separatist ideologies.

Some representatives on the Calamari Council suspected that many of the Quarren people were also being fed poisonous propaganda against King Yos Kolina and the Mon Calamari people, but these suspicions were difficult to confirm or prove as it was usually done in such a surreptitious manner. It seemed as though competing political forces in the galaxy were causing tensions on so many different levels on their world and star system; and so it was only a matter of time before Mon Cala/Dac became ever deeper embroiled in the wars and conflicts that were affecting many of the other planets.

On Ackbar's last trip to the Capital City of Mon Cala, The King had openly confided to him that he had been having dark nightmares about the future: Kolina feared that Mon Cala and its people would one day fall prey to a large-scale planetary conquest.

Gial Ackbar was determined not to let that happen on his world...not if he had anything to say or do about it. As he thought about the fearsome forces of the darkness he darted swiftly in and out of the coral structures, mercilessly snapping up crustaceans in his mouth as he went. He imagined that the little creatures were the enemy soldiers in Kolina's shadowy nightmares, and as he did so he ground them up into little pieces with his sharp, spiny teeth.


	2. The Two Shods

3

 _ **Chapter Two: The Two Shods**_

Gial climbed up the ladder leading from the underwater tube into the entry pool of his section of town. As he climbed out onto the deck which surrounded the pool, one of his aides brought him a red robe. He wrapped it around himself and strode purposefully towards the exit that led him into the civilian sector of Coral Depths City, one of the many floating cities which housed his people.

As he made his way down the tree-lined walkway, his fellow citizens bowed their heads to him slightly as they passed. As the Captain of the Guard of Mon Cala, he was well respected in his community and known around the world as a military leader who was brave and intelligent enough to be an advisor to the King.

At present, however, he did not want to engage anyone in conversation but wished only to return to his wife, Yil Shod. With any luck, she would have returned from her teaching commitments for the day and they could enjoy an intimate soak in the Hot-Bath together...before he was called back into duty. He picked up his pace, and as he did so he heard a voice behind him.

"Father!" the voice cried.

Gial whirled around and was surprised to see his son, Bracken Shod. The boy should not have been out at this time of the day, but rather should have been attending classes at the Coral Depths branch of the Mon Cala Military Academy. His son peered up at him hesitantly, his light-blue skin twitching in trepidation. He was only seventeen years old, and still very eager to please his authoritative male parent.

"Bracken!" Gial responded, "Why are you not with the other cadets learning your drill routines? You know I cannot have you abandoning your responsibilities, for it reflects badly on our family. You must set an example to the others in this community."

"I...I'm sorry, Father...I mean, Captain Ackbar," Bracken replied, hurriedly switching his form of address from the familial to the formal, "The last thing I wanted to do was to cause you shame, but I...I have been expelled from the Academy today. The Drill Sergeant said that I was the poorest excuse for a cadet that he had ever trained. I have been trying my best, but I keep falling short. Sergeant Char-Cala said that I was a disgrace to my family and that you ought to disown me."

Gial's normally salmon-colored skin turned a robust orange as he felt his irritation growing into full-blown anger.

"This is an outrage!" he boomed, "Does the Divinely Appointed Sergeant Char-Cala not understand what it takes to turn an adolescent into a trained professional? Does he think it happens overnight? I will speak with him and tell him that he had better give you another chance or he'll be dancing on the polar ice caps of our world before he can utter the phrase ' _transfer north'!"_

"No!" Bracken objected, "Please, Papa. Sergeant Char-Cala has just transferred here _from_ Northern Ice Bay to the Southern Coral Bay Base anyways. He has lived there all his life, and they do things differently there. The truth is, though, that he's right! You know I'm no good at being a warrior...it's just not in my blood, like it is in yours. The other cadets all despise me, and they've been trying to drum me out for some time now. I was afraid to tell you, but I've wanted to quit since I began this thing. I just...I didn't want you to be disappointed in me."

Gial's temper diminished considerably as he heard his son's words. How had he missed this? He supposed that he had been too caught up with his own duties to notice that his own son was struggling to keep up with the demands of military life. He placed a webbed hand on Bracken's shoulder in order to reassure him.

"Bracken," he said gently, "I wish that you had told me this earlier. I would not have been disappointed and I could never be ashamed of you. I love you too greatly to treat you like that, my young tad! Perhaps the shame is mine for having pushed you into doing something that was not in your nature. You are so much like your mother, and I should have known it."

Bracken gulped in his air and let it out again in relief.

"It's not your fault, Papa," he answered gently, "Mama said a while ago that you would understand, and that I should tell you sooner rather than later. I should have listened."

Gial regarded his son fondly as the pair made their way to the station. They boarded the magnetic levitation, or _maglev_ train that transported them to their home in Bubble-Shod Crescent.

As they stepped onto their home station, Bracken's mother was there to greet them. She was quite tall for a Mon Calamari female, with skin that was a slightly darker shade of blue than that of her son.

Yil Shod had moved to the tropics as a child, arriving with her family from the colder waters of Moonbirth Sea. As an adolescent, she had fallen madly in love with the dashing young cadet, Gial Ackbar, who then proceeded to accidentally fertilize one of her eggs during a passionate dip in Coral Bay. The Shod family had been less than pleased with Yil's choice of a mate, but her egg was nonetheless hatched in her parents' birthing pond and the resulting _tad_ cared for until he developed his air-breathing features. The cherished being that emerged from the birthing pond became their son, Bracken. After Gial had finished his schooling and military training the couple had, to their parents' relief, finally married. The wedded pair had been careful not to birth any more hatchlings so that they could each concentrate on their chosen careers. As a result, Bracken Shod Ackbar had been raised with a great deal of attention lavished upon him by both his parents and his two sets of grandparents. This was something that often worried his father Gial, for he was concerned that the boy would grow up to become lazy and spoiled.

"I told him, Mama," Bracken informed his mother, "You were right, as usual—he's o.k. with my decision. That is a good thing, because the Sarge finally tossed my ass out of the Academy today."

Yil Shod gave her son a comforting embrace before touching heads with her mate.

"I knew he would be a father first, Bracken," she told him, "he can be a stubborn crustacean at times, but your Papa is still a compassionate one in spite of his own ridiculously hyper-masculine, kick-ass military training."

Gial nuzzled his wife with great affection. Now that he had passed The "Good Family-Male" Test, he hoped that Yil would reward him appropriately.

"I guess I'd better make myself scarce," Bracken offered, once they had returned home, "maybe I'll go over to see if Malika will give me a cup of seaweed tea to console me in my disgrace."

Their son had sensed correctly that his parents wanted privacy so that they could mate; but evidently Bracken had plans of his own for a similar purpose.

"Invite her here for supper, Bracken," Yil Shod called after her departing son, "Your Papa hasn't met the new neighbors yet."

Bracken mumbled something unintelligible as he left the pair.

"Now what is our boy going to do?" Gial lamented, "Without military training, he'll have no structure to keep himself disciplined. I'm not sure he'll even be able to attract a mate, since the females seem to prefer soldiers nowadays."

"Hmmm," Yil murmured dubiously as she peeled off his robe, "Yes, well, maybe our purpose is to strip all you soldiers of your blasted uniforms. Our people never needed those in the past."

Gial allowed himself to be led into their private den, which was arranged around a small pool. Yil threw off her yellow dress and made soft, seductive, gurgling noises to lure him underwater. He needed no convincing.

"Aha," he gargled back to her as she pulled him underwater into their spawning bed, "So that's the plan...it's a trap!"


	3. Malika's Story

3

 _ **Chapter Three: Malika's Story**_

Yil and Gial had finished mating and were resting on the sun-deck when Bracken finally arrived, dragging his friend Malika in to see them.

"I'm sorry, dears, I'm afraid you missed supper," Yil told them gently, "it was kroork stew again—it's the season, and Papa hasn't hunted anything else for weeks now."

"It's all right, Mama, we had supper at Malika's," Bracken told her, "It was kroork soup over there."

"Greetings, Mother Shod and Captain Ackbar," Malika offered shyly, "I'm sorry to have kept your son from you, but he said you needed time alone."

"Yes, Malika, thank your parents for keeping him well fed," Yil replied, "Captain Ackbar will be returning to duty soon, but we just wanted to remind ourselves that we _are_ actually married...just in case The Glorious Captain forgot."

Malika lowered her head, unsure of what to say.

"Uh...Malika, you haven't officially met my father yet," Bracken said in a formal fashion, putting an arm around her, "Captain Gial Ackbar, I'd like you to meet Malika Ronnan. She and her parents are from Foamwater City, where you were hatched, Papa. They are merchants, just like your family."

Gial stood up, hurriedly putting on his robe once more. It would not do for a wedded Officer of the Guard to meet a young civilian girl while wearing no attire.

"My Lady Ronnan," Gial responded, bowing to her, "Please excuse my wife and I for our...er...lack of decorum. It is an honor to meet you...and if you are from my home city, I may well know your parents. Could you remind me of their names?"

"Please, Captain Ackbar, just call me Malika. I and my parents are not important people. My father Salamar and my mother Siska run a seaweed bar in the lower part of Coral Bay, at Fish-Barge market. Our business in Foamwater City was destroyed and looted by Quarren separatists...we were only able to afford to come here because my Uncle owned a small fishing craft which he had salvaged and repaired. Uncle Kabba is a nomad who travels from port to port, you see, and..."

Malika's voice trailed off, as she realized that her family story was hardly an impressive one to tell to a decorated Captain of the Guard and a well-respected Professor of Mon Calimari literature.

"Nonsense, my girl!" Gial chided her in a friendly manner, "Everyone from Foamwater City is important to me. I apologize for your family's lack of protection...had I known about it, I would have sent some local officers to investigate. If there is anything that Yil and I can do for you and your parents, please let us know."

"I told you, Malika," Bracken murmured to her, nuzzling the side of her face, "Nothing to worry about! He's quite friendly, in his own way."

Malika pulled away from him slightly, embarrassed by all the attention.

"Give the girl some breathing space, you silly boys!" Yil chided her husband and son, "It's all right, Malika. Your mother Siska told me about your ordeal. The Quarren vandals who did that to you were likely not separatists, but a part of the criminal underclass...is that not right, Gial?"

"Yes, yes, quite so," Gial replied, "We've been trying to hunt down those vermin for a turtle's age, but they're very elusive. It's rumored that many of them harbor themselves deep down under in the Darkest Depths, where not only our people fear to go but even the most decent, deep-dwelling Quarren citizens as well. It's not all Quarren working for those gangs, either...they often use poverty-stricken Mon Cals as operatives..."

Malika turned orange, ducking her head again at his use of the phrase, "poverty-stricken"; and he knew immediately that he had inadvertently made her feel uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry, Malika, that was thoughtless of me," Gial muttered, embarrassed at his own ineptitude, "I certainly did not mean to imply that you were poor...you live next to us, after all, so..."

Gial realized that he had just put his webbed foot even further into his great big mouth.

"Nice one, Papa!" Bracken whispered fiercely, "Malika is never going to want to marry me, at this rate..."

Gial stared at the floor of the deck. Social situations that involved polite, idle chatter were not a strong suit of his. He stared helplessly at Yil, imploring her to intervene and save the conversational day.

"Don't listen to that lout, Malika!" Yil encouraged her, "Unfortunately, our heroic Captain has the manners of a squid in a fine linen market. I'll have you know, Gial, that Salamar and Siska worked day and night to save enough money to rent their house-next-to-ours from a well-heeled Quarren merchant named Tarnus Zarrob...and here you are comparing them to pirates."

" _Pirates,_ Mama?" Bracken exploded, "That's it! You two are each as bad as the other. Malika and I are going for a walk."

The young adolescent led his hapless would-be mate out the door in a huff.

"Well, now we've done it," Gial grumbled, "You were supposed to add some grace to the occasion, Yil Shod! Perhaps we both have the manners of a squid in a fine linen market."

"I've been married to you for too long, Gial Ackbar!" Yil retorted, "I'm turning into an orange, kick-ass tropical goldfish."

"Yes, and I'm turning into a blue, sex-mad, cold-water carp," Gial quipped back, "no wonder our son is so buggered up."

Their good-natured bickering was interrupted by an insistent beeping sound.

"By the Gods of the Ocean," Gial muttered irritably, pressing a button on his wrist-band, "It never fails. Ackbar here! What is it, Base Command?"

"Captain Ackbar," a strained voice said over the communicator, "This is Sergeant Char-Cala speaking. I'm sorry to disturb you during your family leave, Sir, but you'd better get over here right away. We have a city-wide emergency."

Gial had discarded his robe while Char-Cala was speaking. Yil immediately brought him his uniform, which he donned hastily as he rushed out the door.


	4. A Red Beam from the Ocean Below

3

 _ **Chapter Four: A Red Beam from the Ocean Below**_

Gial exited the Maglev train, running out the doors towards the Central Command entrance. He had overridden the transport system in order to give the Mon Cala Guard and other security professionals top priority to travel to the Coral Bay Command and Control Center. As he rushed inside the doors, he was surprised to see his son there, still dressed in his uniform. Bracken had not taken it off before he went over to see Malika, no doubt because he wanted to impress her. Whatever his reason for being here, the boy needed to leave immediately. This was no place for a civilian, and Captain Ackbar needed to concentrate all of his efforts on his job. He could not afford to be a distracted Papa Gial any longer.

"Bracken, I have no time for you right now," he barked, "Go home to your mother immediately! You are no longer a part of the military."

"I'm sorry, Papa...Father...I mean, Captain Ackbar, Sir. I was called back into service due to an emergency. I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to do."

There was a cry of recognition, and an old, slate-blue Mon Calamari hobbled over to greet the pair.

"Captain Ackbar!" he commanded, "You are to be transferred over to my authority...as is your son Bracken. I specifically requested both of you to accompany me on this urgent mission, for I need some fresh blood."

"Begging your pardon, Admiral Basskin," Gial replied, confused, "But what is the nature of this city-wide emergency? You are now retired, and I am responsible for the protection of this City—I cannot run off on another of your madcap nautical missions."

Sergeant Char-Cala ran over to explain to his superior what was happening.

"Captain Ackbar, I apologize," he said, "I sent out the emergency protocols on Admiral Basskin's authority, but General Lorrmak has just ordered me to cancel the alert. He says the threat is not real."

"What?!" Basskin shouted angrily, "Tell that yellow-spotted eel Lorrmak that we are about to have our asses blown sky-high if he does not take action! I was studying this situation when all of you Tads were in your birthing ponds, and I know what I'm talking about!"

"Lorrmak says he's just a crazy old coot, Sir," Char-Cala murmured in an aside to Ackbar, "They should have taken away his security clearances years ago, but no one wanted to offend him. At any rate, since your son has been called into service, I suggest we send him out with Basskin in his latest contraption—it will keep the old one occupied while we determine whether this threat of his has any merit."

Ackbar pushed aside his anger at Char-Cala for expelling Bracken, and forced the tone of his voice to remain neutral.

"Bracken was in the Academy," he responded, "He has never served, and he cannot serve since you expelled him, Char-Cala."

"I know, Sir, I'm sorry," Char-Cala replied, "But I couldn't go easy on him simply because he was your son—I was fairly sure you wouldn't want that, and he just wasn't ready for a service placement like the other cadets. This mission with Basskin will be more of a Tad-minding exercise than anything else, though. The Admiral will be leading a naval mission, which will leave the City Troops to perform their duties in peace. Bracken can go along to humor the old coot, and we'll just all pretend that Basskin really is saving the planet."

"Char-Cala," Ackbar growled, becoming increasingly annoyed at the Sergeant's patronizing attitude towards his old mentor, "I'll have you know that this "old coot" as you call him, was one of the Navy's finest officers. He would not be issuing an alert from the City's Command and Control Center if it was not necessary...it would be prudent of us to at least keep the City's Shielding Array operational. Is General Lorrmak _absolutely_ certain there is no threat?"

"Absolutely, Captain," Char-Cala confirmed, "The Shielding Array is draining too much power from City resources, and we can't leave it on indefinitely...it is to be used for dire emergencies only, which this certainly isn't."

"Ah, yes it is, my young fool," Basskin called out, having crept up behind them to listen to their conversation, "as you will soon find out..."

The Admiral's statement was confirmed by a huge jolt, as the floor began to shudder and shake.

"Seaquake!" Ackbar cried, "Get to your post, Sergeant! Tell Lorrmak to keep that Shielding Array _on_ , and close the Blast Floors!"

A bolt of red energy suddenly seared its way through the floor of the Foyer, and it appeared to be coming from the ground rather than from atop. Ackbar threw himself against both Bracken and the old Admiral, pulling them away from the red beam before it tore through the floor and walls, effectively cutting their Base of Operations in two.

Ackbar had thrown himself at the pair so hard that the three Mon Cals had tumbled into the opposite wall. The Captain recovered first and pulled his son up by the arm.

"Stay here and tend to Admiral Basskin, Bracken," he ordered the boy, "monitor the situation and report to me via wrist-comm if there are any changes. I have to get to the Command Deck."

He left his son with the old Admiral and jumped over the fissure that had formed as a result of the energy beam. He hated to simply leave the old one and his own youngster alone, but he had little choice.

He climbed up the ladder to the Deck, where General Lorrmak was directing his officers.

"Captain Ackbar," the General said when he saw him, "Get your emergency teams out there to see if there were any civilians hurt in the attack. Damn! I should have listened to the Old Coot..."

Ackbar wasted no time on self-recrimination, but was already on it when the General ordered him to dispatch the teams. He strode to his station and sent out the call, using his devices to locate the damaged areas where people were likely to need medical aid.

The screen showed his troops scrambling to get their emergency equipment loaded into the hover-crafts.

"Teams Dar and Mar," he commanded them, "Please go directly to the Capital—there is damage to the City Hall building and people are trapped. Teams Lop and Kab, take your crafts over the Waterway to check on neighborhoods East One, Two and Three. Tob and Mok, you take West Four, Five, and Six. General Troop members, get your orders from your Team Leaders. I need a team to deliver fresh water bottles, and another to hand out emergency food rations. Seismology Team, I need a report, please! I need to know when the aftershocks are due to arrive..."

The various factions of the Mon Cala Guard worked feverishly as Ackbar dealt with distress calls from other cities. The same kinds of reports were coming in from Mon Calamari floating and underwater cities and Quarren deep-sea cities alike: each of them was experiencing mysterious assaults by a red beam of energy which came up from the ocean below to slice their communities into two halves.


	5. A Joint Mission

2

 _ **Chapter Five: A Joint Mission**_

The Mon Calamari and Quarren diplomats had arrived at the Coral Bay Command and Control Center to meet with military officials and help develop a plan of action for the strange attacks that had been happening all over their world, from both the floating and underwater cities of the Mon Calamari to the deep undersea cities of the Quarren people. It had been confirmed that all of these attacks had originated from deep within the ocean.

For the past five hours the attacks had apparently ceased, but everyone was on edge. The emergency teams had been successfully deployed to help those who had been injured, including those in Ackbar's own family neighborhood. He could only hope that his wife Yil and her neighbors had made it to one of the nearby shelters when the raid sirens sounded. As much as he wanted to, however, he could not go and check on her for he was obliged to maintain his post at the damaged Command and Control Center while he continued to dispatch and monitor the teams that were tending to the various emergencies.

At present, the diplomats among them were at war with each other as they all gathered in a circle on the functional side of the Command Center. The other half had been sliced in such a way that part of it stood up like a great big ocean wave.

"The attacks originated from deep _within_ the ocean!" the Mon Calamari Ambassador to the Quarren, Vax Keltsin, insisted, "That can mean only one thing: the Quarren are responsible for these cowardly raids on our bases and our cities!"

"How dare you accuse us, Vax Keltsin!" the Quarren Ambassador to the Mon Calamari, Quid'aihl Mirrtra, shot back, "The attacks on _our_ cities and bases have been far more damaging...after all the time we've spent hammering out an accord between your people and mine, you have betrayed us once again! I should have known better than to trust such an arrogant, greedy species as the Mon Calamari. You selfish _floaters_ and your grand King Yos Kolina think you are the only species that matters on this planet, and so you have developed a secret technology and have hidden it in the ocean depths to make it _appear_ as though we launched the attack...you are all liars, and you should be ashamed."

The Mon Calamaris in the room muttered irritably at Mirrtra's self-righteous insults. Ambassador Keltsin was about to make a heated retort, but Ackbar could finally stand no more. Although it was not his place to do so as a mere Captain, he held up his webbed hand and called for silence.

"Gentlebeings, please!" he cried above the growing din, "We are getting nowhere accusing each other. Has it occurred to no one that off-world political forces could be launching these attacks in order to pit us all against one another? You know the strategy: divide and conquer. We will accomplish nothing unless we all work together, and time is being wasted while we argue like children."

To Ackbar's considerable surprise, the room fell silent. The military officers, both Mon Calamari and Quarren, nodded in agreement with the Captain of the Guard. Another being stepped forward at that point in the conversation, one who was not from Mon Cala. His skin was dark and his stature was tall: he was Human.

"The Captain is right," the Human thundered, "Listen, people, everybody has got to relax their great big heads! Admiral Basskin has warned every single one of you about this threat, but you chose not to heed him. Now might be the time to stop hating and turn that mistake around."

"You are not from this world, Human, and so you have nothing to say about it!" Keltsin snarled, "All Humans ever want to do is take over the entire galaxy."

"Yes, they are something like the _Mon Calamari_!" Mirrtra roared, "They who use the Quarren as cheap labor to mine ore so that they can use it to enrich themselves and build more naval vessels and spaceships for their ever-increasing fleets. They want to take over the entire planet of Dac and claim it for their own!"

"All right, I've heard enough from the diplomats and politicians for one day," General Lorrmak growled, "Admiral Basskin, I apologize to you. I was wrong—you're not crazy, we are. If I give you Ackbar, can you neutralize this threat in your little bathysphere? Don't get him killed or King Yos Kolina will impale me on a harpoon! I'm taking one hell of a chance, but it's better than listening to these fools natter while the world falls apart around us."

"Ready to go, General," Basskin boomed, "the Human, Dr. Dagon Kallesto, will accompany us. He has worked with me on this _little bathysphere_ of ours for some time...and Ambassador Mirrtra, I've also recruited a number of Quarren for this mission. It will be a joint effort between our peoples."

"How can we trust you, Admiral?" Mirrtra yowled, the snake-like tentacles on his chin writhing in agitation, "You, a Mon Calamari, in charge of things as usual and shouting orders to Quarren as though we were your inferiors?"

"Why, Ambassador—did you not know that you are one of the Quarren who has been selected to join the mission as an observer? Your people will share command of the venture with us. Not you, though, Ambassador Keltsin—you're being excluded because you're a Mon Cal and therefore untrustworthy. That, and I can't stand to listen to you two bicker throughout the trip. Ackbar, prepare to disembark!"

Ackbar saluted crisply, rounding up the selected crew members as quickly as possible. They all followed Admiral Basskin obediently as he limped along in front of them, his coral cane tapping against the ruptured floor.


	6. The Baffling Bathysphere

4

 _ **Chapter Six: The Baffling Bathysphere**_

Ackbar attempted to increase his understanding of the technological equipment that was being used aboard the so-called "bathysphere", but it left him baffled.

Admiral Basskin was busy barking orders at his crew, while the Human, Dr. Kallesto, was monitoring the technology. Suddenly, Ackbar was left with the unfamiliar sensation of having nothing to do. He wondered why the Admiral had insisted upon his coming along. He would have been far more useful back at Command and Control.

He realized that a simple change of location and position within the hierarchy had left him with this unfamiliar feeling of under-confidence. He had not felt this way since he had been a fifteen-year-old cadet learning the ins and outs of military life at the Coral Bay division of the Mon Cala Military Academy. He had been a member of the Mon Cala Guard all of his adult life, and as one of the King's own protectors of the floating and underwater cities he had always known his place within the structure. Here in this spherical craft, however, he seemed to have no place. They were all still referring to him as "Captain", but he felt as though he had no rank. He felt like a passenger.

He decided that this would be a good time to check on Bracken to see how the boy was faring. He asked Kallesto to direct him towards the Command Deck, or whatever it was called on this thing. Following the Human's directions, he climbed the ladder and walked straight ahead. When he arrived at the Deck, he saw nothing but darkness on the screen. He peered around him and saw to his surprise that the Admiral had given Bracken something to do. The boy was busy at his console, monitoring the water pressure outside the craft. As he saw the look of intense concentration on his face, Ackbar could not help but feel very proud of his son. _Perhaps Bracken is better suited to a career in the Navy than as a member of the Guard_ , he thought. Astonishingly, it was an idea that had never occurred to him before.

Ackbar decided to leave the tiny "Command Deck", as he did not want to distract Bracken and there was not enough room for him to simply stand there and observe. He wondered what in the name of Dac he would do if there was an emergency, for he felt worse than useless.

"Looking for something to do, Captain?" the Human, Dr. Dagon Kallesto, asked him.

"Yes, Doctor," Ackbar replied, "I am quite desperate for a job...I'll even sweep the floor for you if you wish. I fear that I ought to have stayed back at the Base, for I know next to nothing about this...this _bathysphere_ thing."

"It's a little more than a simple bathysphere," Kallesto said with a chuckle, "but it does take some getting used to. I can teach you about it, as it will take a while for us to descend to the deepest depths. Then you won't feel quite so much like a...well, what we Humans call ' _a fish out of water'_. No offence intended, Captain."

"None taken, Doctor," Ackbar replied, feeling more like a Tad in a birthing pond than a Captain of the Guard.

Kallesto was a good teacher, and before long the " _fish-out-of-water_ " began to develop his land-legs. He was soon competent enough to be given the simple task of monitoring the hydro-acoustics with the Sonar equipment. He was to listen for anything out of the ordinary, and as he did so he picked up a faint echo. As he drew Kallesto's attention to it, Basskin's voice interrupted their work.

"Dag," said the Admiral, "Send the Captain up to the Bridge. Now that we've descended half way into the abyss, I will show him how to man the weapons array—that's what I most need him for. Get that blasted diplomat, Mirrtra, to help you monitor the sound waves. It's about time the Quarren Ambassador did something useful, besides scolding us naughty Mon Cals for our greed and arrogance."

"Will do, Admiral," Kallesto replied cheerfully as Ackbar moved to return to the Bridge, "I showed the Captain some of our equipment and already he's picked up something...I'll get Mirrtra on it right now. Maybe his Quarren's extra deep-sea hearing can detect more."

Ackbar went to the "Bridge" as soon as Basskin had ordered it, for he was relieved to finally have an official function. He was certainly no stranger to weaponry; but the weapons that he had used in his life were mainly of the hand-held variety, such as blaster bolt batons and laser harpoons.

Basskin gave him a lesson on how to use the weapon systems and instructed him to employ the sonar equipment once more to detect small, rectangular droid-bots which often patrolled the area.

"If you detect any, target them immediately," Basskin commanded, "and destroy them. They're spy-probes that will alert the Enemy Base if they detect us."

"Won't we be hard to miss, Admiral?" Ackbar queried, "This spherical craft of yours is quite large."

"Yes, but we've got a special shield that we put up which avoids detection," Basskin explained, "Kallesto and I have been working on this for some time, Captain. We've been coming down here to spy on this Base and we've been developing increasingly improved deep-sea crafts as we've progressed. We're hoping that, this time, we'll succeed in infiltrating the actual Droid Base...we're calling the base Dark Sea One, for lack of a better name."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about this sooner, Admiral?" Ackbar asked, "We might have been a bit better prepared for the attack if we had known."

"The Navy has known about it for some time, as well as some of the higher levels of the Planetary Militia and the Calamari Council. We've kept the King out of the loop to protect him, so don't blame Kolina next time you're advising him. He would no doubt want the population to be made aware of the danger; but if it became common knowledge, however, the mysterious people who are remotely running this computerized, Droid-run Base would know that we had discovered it...so it meant that we had to run the risk of allowing a few attacks to happen in order to buy ourselves some time while we were figuring out a way to shut it down completely."

Ackbar felt the anger rising within him. Wily politicians and high-level officials were forever keeping important things a secret, but to keep the King and the Mon Cala Guard "out of the loop" was unconscionable as far as he was concerned. These kinds of political lies of omission always seemed to involve displacing civilians or even sacrificing their lives. Not for the first time, he thought about his wife, Yil, and wondered where she was right now. Not for the first time, he pushed the thought away so that he could concentrate on his work.

"I know you're furious, with us, Captain," Basskin said to him gently, "and you have a right to be...you are no doubt worrying about your family. But one day, you may rise to the rank of a General or even an Admiral in the Naval Forces, like me. You may be asked to make some difficult choices involving the lives of civilians...decisions that take into account the collective welfare rather than that of the individual. Some individuals may have to die so that the entire family can be saved...you must understand that as a member of the Military, Captain."

"So you see," Basskin continued after pausing to let his words sink in, "I'm not just a 'crazy old coot' engaging in 'madcap nautical missions', as I believed you referred to our work. I had intended to embark on our mission much earlier, before the attack had occurred; but as you can imagine I encountered a lot of resistance from the Mon Cala Guard, which takes care of the more local concerns and therefore had little inside knowledge of the scope and depth of our mission. We had no idea when or where the attack would happen, but once it did the top officials ordered General Lorrmak to send us down without delay. Before then, they had preferred to let them think I was just a crazy old coot tinkering with toys as a hobby during my retirement. Silly Tads! I've been working on developing innovative deep-sea crafts all my life."

"I'm sorry, Admiral, for my ignorance," Ackbar apologized, feeling foolish for what he had said to the old one earlier, "I did not intend to disrespect your work by calling it 'madcap'."

"Actually," Basskin admitted with a merry chuckle, "the early training missions, the ones I voluntarily brought you cadets along on when you were adolescents, were rather 'mad-cap' now that I come to think about it...I remember you well, Gial Ackbar, as a fifteen-year-old. You were fresh-faced and eager to learn, but a bit shy as I recall. Something like your son Bracken...which is exactly why I wanted him to come along. He's been showing great promise in learning about complicated technology very rapidly. If you people don't want him in The Guard, then send him over to me when we return."

 _If we return,_ Ackbar's mind said to itself. Again, he quickly pushed the thought away.


	7. Dark Sea One

_**Chapter Seven: Dark Sea One**_

Ackbar had located another group of droid-bots with the sonar equipment. He targeted them immediately and fired until he had destroyed every last one of them. He was becoming quite adept at it, and he could tell that Basskin was pleased with his performance. If these droids were tasked with guarding the alien Base, then missing a single one could spell disaster for the mission.

"Bring us into our favorite nesting spot, Zarrob," Basskin ordered the Quarren navigator, "Easy as she does it...Captain Ackbar, you can relax your trigger-happy fingers for a couple of minutes while we initiate the docking procedures. Don't worry; we'll be camouflaged inside this little nook of ours. Besides, I think you may have been a bit too successful in wiping out the droid-bots. If too many of our little friends are destroyed, the Base will know that something's up."

"Yes, Admiral," Ackbar acknowledged, "I think I've managed to wipe friendship with these things off the agenda. It wasn't easy, though—it's pitch black down here."

He did as he was told and took his hands away from the panel while the Admiral directed the other crew members. He began to think about his conversation with Malika the other day at his home, about some members of the "criminal underclass" having been rumored to have come from "the Deepest Depths". He had really just been looking for something to say by babbling on about the myth, but he now wondered if it were true.

There were thieves that The Guard had been tasked with investigating who would seem to disappear into thin air, along with the loads of metal ore that they had stolen from the Quarren. Since many of these thugs were Mon Calamari, he could see why the Quarren might think that the Mon Cals were against them. It angered him that a few of his people could cause so much distrust among their Quarren brethren, but he knew also that some of the Quarren criminals were doing the same thing among his own people. Again, it all seemed to be part of a larger "divide and conquer" strategy rather than simple piracy. If he caught any of them, he felt as though he would like to treat the disgraceful ruffians to the same fate as the droid-bots. He also knew that he would need to restrain his baser impulses if they were to succeed in this mission; but how they were to do that exactly, he had no idea. He needed more information from Basskin.

"Admiral," he ventured, once the "docking procedures" had been completed, "Where exactly are we? Is this place at the very bottom of the ocean?"

"No, Captain, it's a natural rock shelf that has formed over the millennia. This ocean of ours is almost endlessly deep, and we have gone as far as we can go without becoming irretrievably lost in the darkness. This place was most convenient for the deep-sea builders to create their vile base."

"Sir," he inquired, "Have you heard about a criminal underclass which originates from the ocean depths? I was telling my son's young girlfriend about the rumors, and I now wonder if they could be true. Could a criminal gang be responsible for building this base...and maybe bringing in salvaged droids to run it for them while they do their dirty work up above?"

"I very much doubt it," Basskin replied, "although there are many unfortunate poor people among both the Mon Cals and the Quarren who are being used to commit certain crimes. I have seen no evidence, however, that these operatives have either the power or the technology to create such a technologically advanced structure. The droids that run it are definitely not salvaged, and from what we have seen are different from the Human-created variety. Personally, I've never cared much for droids, but I like these ones even less. Kallesto came up with the theory that the base is run by them but controlled remotely by some off-world group that we've never heard of before."

The Quarren navigator that Basskin had referred to as "Zarrob" had been listening intently to their conversation, he noticed. The being's pointed head-crest was taut and his black eyes were trained on them. Having completed his maneuvering duties, he walked over to Ackbar.

"I know your neighbors," he said to him softly, his beige chin-tentacles squirming slightly, "Salamar and Siska Ronnan, and their daughter Malika. I have heard that your son wishes to marry the girl."

He glanced at Bracken, but his son was busily concentrated on his console. The Admiral had left them for the moment in order to consult with Dr. Kallesto. Ackbar bobbed his head slightly, encouraging Zarrob to continue.

"I installed them in the house beside yours to protect them," he explained, "Your wife Yil may have mentioned me. I posed as a wealthy merchant looking to rent property to Mon Cals, but I am truly an agent for the Quarren Private Investigation Team. I have had many reports of both Mon Cal and Quarren people disappearing, with their families desperate to find them. My name is Tarnus Zarrob."

Ackbar remembered Yil mentioning Zarrob to him as the Quarren landlord from whom the Ronnan family was renting their home. He had wondered how a family of seaweed vendors, no matter how hard they worked, could possibly afford to rent a home in such a posh area of town. He and Yil were only living there themselves courtesy of the Shod family's great wealth. Yil's father owned a large global ship-building business which had been passed down to him from his parents.

"From what were you protecting our neighbors, Master Zarrob?" he queried.

"Salamar's brother, the aqua-nomad Kabba Ronnan, had salvaged a rather strange-looking 'fishing' vessel, and we were investigating him. We believe he was not involved in anything but simply found the craft—floating rather conveniently in the port just outside his make-shift home in Foamwater City. We have found other, similar craft with no identification numbers floating around near the slum areas of both our cities and yours. The poor people snatch them up immediately. I knew something about Basskin's work, and I consulted him about these mysterious craft. He immediately hired me to work aboard his bathysphere on this mission of his, and I accepted the job. I delegated the task of watching Kabba to my assistant, and I placed Salamar's family in the home of my underwater polo team-mate, who happens to be the Chief of the local police in Coral Depths City."

"Chief Liogga," Ackbar confirmed, "He was our neighbor before he was transferred to the Coral Bay area for an investigation."

"Exactly," Zarrob continued, "I had tipped him off about these mysterious vessels, because he had been asking me what I knew about certain thefts involving unidentified crafts. Now, however, with the attacks, we have had to put the investigation on hold. I believe the crafts all come from this base, Dark Sea One."

Ackbar stared at the Quarren before bowing his head in gratitude to him for sharing this information. It was worrisome that the family of the girl that Bracken intended to marry might be involved in the activities of this so-called "criminal underclass" which was ostensibly being manipulated by a bunch of remotely-controlled droids. He and Zarrob were given no more time to discuss the issue, as Basskin had returned with Dr. Kallesto and the Quarren Ambassador Quid'aihl Mirrtra.

"All right, people, listen up!" Basskin barked, "We don't have much time. This is our third trip down here, and now that the attacks on our cities have begun, it will likely be the last opportunity we have to infiltrate the base and shut it down."

"How on Dac will we possibly do that, Admiral?" Mirrtra asked irritably, "We're practically blind down here and the pressure outside the craft will kill us if we try to swim over to the base. And what precisely are we going to _do_ to shut it down? Will these robots simply let us dance in and flick the 'off' switch? I do hope you naval nit-wits have a plan of some kind."

"We're going over in one of our shuttles, Ambassador," Kallesto answered the diplomat, "and I'll be leading the team while Admiral Basskin is on stand-by aboard the bathysphere. Our plan is to throw a ' _monkey wrench'_ into the system. I've been studying the surreptitious scans we've made of the inside of that thing, and I believe we've pinpointed where the main computer is located. The Admiral and I believe that the computer is the control mechanism which is central to all the activity that's been going on down here. The commands to the droids are all coming from there—it's deep within the center of the base."

Ackbar did not know what a 'monkey wrench' was, but he assumed it was a Human reference to a glitch or virus of some kind that would throw the computer's processes into chaos. He did not want to be pessimistic, but he shared the Ambassador's concern that the actual "plan of action" did not seem particularly well-orchestrated. He also knew, however, that Basskin and Kallesto had learned a great deal in their research during their last two trips to ' _Dark Sea One_ ' and so he supposed that they would all need to put their faith in the oddly-matched pair.

"Enough chatter, Ambassador!" Basskin commanded, "We need to get moving, because we can't stay down here indefinitely. In addition, we only have a small margin of time to work within before our infiltration is detected. Captain Ackbar, you will accompany Kallesto to the base along with the Quarren agent Zarrob and his team. Mirrtra, Bracken, and the others will stay here with me and aid you as best we can from our location, using our scans to guide you. We will keep communication to a minimum, and only in coded messages when you are in need of them to find the main control room. Are there any questions?"

"Just one, Admiral," Zarrob announced, "if we find some of our missing people down here, are we permitted to rescue them?"

"Only if it can be done without jeopardizing the mission," Basskin replied, "Remember, people, your main task is to shut down the controls...if some civilians need to be sacrificed in the process, then that is the price that we will pay."


	8. Infiltration

4

 _ **Chapter Eight: Infiltration**_

"Good-bye, Papa," Bracken whispered to his father, just as he was about to depart on Basskin's newest, state-of-the-art deep-sea shuttle, "Please, come back. You know Mama will kill you if you don't."

"Indeed," Gial whispered back, "she may kill both of us, if we dare to die on this mission."

He embraced his son quickly, before stepping back into his role as Captain Ackbar.

"Keep the Admiral safe, Mr. Shod," he ordered, while his son saluted him.

It was an odd dance, this jumping back and forth between the personal Papa and the iron-clad military man, he thought as he in turn saluted his old mentor Admiral Basskin.

"May the Ocean God Thorus be with you, boys," Basskin called to them as the shuttle doors closed.

"And may the Force swim with you as well," Bracken cried.

Kallesto chuckled at the boy's version of the Galactic Blessing as he piloted them out of the bottom bay of the bathysphere and glided soundlessly out of the "nesting spot". Ackbar had taken up his spot beside Kallesto, monitoring the external environment. The shuttle was designed to move fast once they were clear of the camouflaged sea crevice, and so Kallesto did exactly that. He spirited it up and through the darkness, and over to the huge metallic structure. Since it was so dark and they could see nothing, the screens on their consoles were interpreting the computer data and presenting approximate images of the structure.

Their expert Human pilot knew exactly where to dock the craft, for he had spent a great deal of time spying on Dark Sea One and studying its inner and outer schematics. It was domed, and had many tiny entrance bays where apparently unmanned shuttles entered and exited. Kallesto had told them that he had created their own shuttle to blend in seamlessly with those at Dark Sea One, and so he was able to enter one of the bays and dock without interference.

"I've determined that this is the entrance nearest to the central computer," Kallesto told the team, "but what we're going to find when we actually get in there is anyone's guess. I can monitor when the droids are present and when they're not, so we'll just have to trust our instruments to feed us that kind of information. Just to let you know, guys-if I get this wrong, we're all dead."

"How tremendously reassuring, Doctor," the Quarren agent Tarnus Zarrob replied, irony lining his voice.

Fortunately, the shuttle bay area was clear for the time being and they were all able to pile out of the craft. Kallesto swiftly led the team out the sliding doors that led into a metal corridor. Unlike the external marine environment, there was a dull, artificial lighting within the Base which permitted them to see relatively well.

"We'll need to break up," Kallesto whispered to them as they huddled together in the empty, narrow hallway, "Zarrob, you and your guys take the direct route to the control room and if you make it, carry out the order that I've outlined for you. Signal us with the code only if you're successful in initiating the programming virus. Once that's accomplished, Ackbar and I will attempt to shut down the Central Command Core. That will throw everything into chaos, and then we will have about fifteen minutes to get back to the shuttle and out the bay doors to Basskin's craft. Any time after that, and the minimal life support systems will shut down along with the rest of this Monster's Nest. There won't be much time for heroics and rescues, Zarrob; but if we find some sane prisoners down here we'll try to take as many back with us as we safely can. Remember, everybody: _if the inmates here have been implanted with mind-control mechanisms, leave them_ _alone_. Their brains will have been connected to the central computer and they'll be close to dead anyways. You all get that?"

Zarrob wagged his chin tentacles to confirm the plan, and gestured to his Quarren militia men to follow him.

"Ackbar, you're with me," Kallesto whispered, "We're taking a different route."

Ackbar wasted no time questioning the Human, for he knew that there was not much time. He was surprised at how empty the place was as they crouched down low and scuttled their way along the corridor.

Kallesto paused for a moment to show Ackbar the map once more. He had already studied it prior to boarding the shuttle, but he looked at it again to confirm what he had committed to his memory. Mon Cals were quite adept at the art of the photographic memory, which meant that Kallesto really did not need to worry about reminders.

Their scanners suddenly flashed a silent warning which confirmed the approach of a team of droids. Kallesto pointed upwards, disappearing into a cylindrical transport tube that was built into the wall. He spread his feet wide in order to work his way up, and Ackbar followed. The tube was evidently made for transporting cylindrical loads up and down, but it was definitely not intended for humanoid bodies. Ackbar hoped fervently that they did not meet a descending load on their trip to the next level, for they had not had the time to check their instruments for objects in motion. Their travel upwards was rather slower than they would have liked, but eventually they managed to make it to the next floor.

They continued on in that manner for some time, dodging droids by either hanging back in the corridor or ascending the nearest transport tube to go further up. He knew that Kallesto's plan was to keep ascending, traveling "inwards and upwards" until they got to "the top": the Central Command Core that was the prime target of their mission.

As they worked their way to the top level of the Base surreptitiously, Ackbar had an opportunity to observe some of these "droids" which were being controlled through this mysterious Command Core. They appeared, to his surprise, to be non-humanoid in design. They were mere floating blocks with seemingly no individual intelligence and so he surmised that they were all part of a larger hive mind. That Master-Mind was no doubt responsible for launching the recent attacks upon the cities of Mon Cala.

After they had reached the next level, Ackbar detected signs of living beings.

"Kallesto," he whispered his warning, "I think we may be in an area where the slave workers are kept."

Kallesto nodded, peering around him at the wider hallways. They hung back in the transport tube as a group of Mon Cal and Quarren workers shuffled along, pushing carts of metal ore. Ackbar heard a "whooshing" noise, and immediately pushed Kallesto out of the tube and jumped out himself just in time to avoid a series of cylindrical barrels that were all traveling down the tube at an alarming rate. They tumbled out in plain view of the workers, but they simply plodded on by with blank expressions on their faces.

"Damn," Kallesto swore, "I knew this was progressing way too easily. I'm sorry, Captain, but I'm going to have to ask you to masquerade as a worker and cover me until the next transport tube."

The Human grabbed an empty cart from one of the dazed, returning workers and jumped inside it. Ackbar put on his best "blank expression" face and followed the other workers slowly, pushing the cart. He did not like being exposed like this, but at least he and Kallesto had been fitted with dark clothing so that they would not stand out too much while on board the Base.

Ackbar shivered slightly as one of the floating-block "bosses" glided by them. Kallesto had flattened himself out within the confines of the cart as much as he was able. They knew that a Human would stand out a little more than a Mon Cal, and so it was important that the Doctor not be seen.

In spite of the dire need to keep calm in this circumstance, Ackbar could not help but feel the rage within him at the very idea of his own and the Quarren people enslaved like this. He understood now what Kallesto had meant when he said that any of the slaves that had been "implanted" with control mechanisms would be close to dead anyways. Even so, it was difficult to contemplate simply leaving these sad unfortunates here. They had more than likely been poor people enticed by the "abandoned" alien water-crafts that the mechanical Control-Mind had planted in nearby slum areas before capturing, implanting, and sending groups of thieves out to steal ore and other materials that they could use to expand their Base of Operations. Ackbar wondered who the "remote-controllers" of the Base were and how they could have been wickedly ingenious enough to build all this complicated gadgetry in the first place.

He immediately stopped wondering as he felt rather than saw the presence of a "Block-Droid" behind him. These droids, if one could call them that, seemed quite devoid of personality. They were created with none of the imaginative animation that the Humans put into their creations. Even so, he knew the droid was scanning him.

"You are now under the authority of Droid Base One Thousand Five Hundred and One," it informed him in the Mon Calamari language, "Prepare yourself to be fitted with a Mental Obedience Chip."

Ackbar felt a chill in his heart as the robot spoke. To his relief, the Block-Head glided by them swiftly, as it was perhaps returning to complete a task. Kallesto stared up at him, and when they passed nearby another transport tube, he stopped to let the Human jump out and up it. Before he could follow, however, another robot had been alerted and floated over with a red blaster cannon trained directly at him.

"Move along," it ordered him in a mechanical voice, "Disobey the command and you will be discontinued."

Ackbar obeyed reluctantly, realizing that the game for him was more than likely over. He had known that it might be necessary to sacrifice his life, and he could now only hope that Kallesto, Zarrob and the others would be able to fulfill the mission.

As he pushed his empty cart into a large room filled with metal armor plating and carts of ore, he suddenly felt an intense stab of pained recognition. A familiar figure stood in the middle of the work-room, directing the hapless inmates with a glazed look in her eyes. Ackbar drew in his breath, completely numb with shock: it was his own wife, Yil Shod.


	9. The Codes of The Infinite

5

 _ **Chapter Nine: The Codes of the Infinite**_

Ackbar felt as though he were going insane. How could his beloved Yil possibly be here, in this wretched place? She was not a poverty-stricken slum dweller. She had been safely ensconced at their home yesterday evening when he had left to attend to the emergency.

It was possible that she may have been displaced by the destructive Red Beam which had wreaked havoc upon their city; but how on Dac had she arrived here? She had no access to a techno-sphere like the one Admiral Basskin had invented.

He looked straight at her, trying to catch her eye; but her eyes seemed to him to be lifeless. On the side of her temple, a metallic, spider-like contraption seemed to have been drilled into her head. Was this the "obedience chip" that the Droid-Block had been droning on about? As he glanced around him, he saw that most of the other workers did not have the same spider-thing in their heads. The ones who did seemed to be functioning as foremen or supervisors. Since Yil was extremely strong-willed, he supposed that she would have needed something stronger to quell her and to channel her beautiful strength into this deadened, sordid labor.

As he scanned the others, his gaze fell upon a young Mon Cal girl and he recognized her immediately: it was Malika! There was an orange-and-white Mon Cal male beside her whose presence emanated a sense of strong paternal protection. He surmised that this must be her father, Salamar.

Malika's eyes locked with Ackbar's in a determined, conspiratorial manner. He could tell at once that the chip, if it had been inserted into her, was failing to completely take hold of her mind and will.

"Then it's not impossible to fight," he thought to himself.

The Droid with the red cannon blaster made a buzzing noise, causing Malika to convulse slightly. She wore a tormented expression on her face, as if being summoned to do something she vehemently did not want to do. She walked over to where Ackbar stood, moving jerkily in a semi-mechanical fashion. As she did so, the Yil-Bot turned her attention to her former husband.

"Worker Five Hundred," she commanded Malika tonelessly, "Insert chip into worker number Five Hundred and One."

Malika's eyes reflected deep pain as she brought out a metallic instrument. Her father Salamar was clutching his head, as if battling the effects of his own mental implant.

She pressed the cold metal gun to Gial's temple and whispered, "Don't fight it with your mind, Sir. Fight it with your spirit."

Ackbar touched the concealed weapon inside his jacket. So far, the Droids were not aware of the fact that he might actually be armed. He considered bringing it out and shooting as many of these mind-slaves as he could before he was shot down himself. He especially needed to target Yil, for he knew that she would rather be dead than to lose her dignity and her spirit of freedom serving this soul-less collection of circuitry boxes. In a way, he knew that she was already dead, and with that knowledge he felt a piece of himself dying as well.

Somehow, though, he could not will himself to do it. Malika was in possession of her own will, and if he self-destructed she would be taken down with them. He could not bear the thought of killing the young girl, who no doubt still held out hope of escaping this hellish torture. He thought of his son Bracken, and of how he had fallen in love with her.

And so, with that thought in his mind, he allowed her to insert the chip into him. He felt a stabbing pressure in his head, and his entire brain seemed to be on fire. He closed his eyes, and allowed his rage at this terrible injustice to rise and then dissipate. He felt himself sinking beneath the waves, sinking until his entire spirit was enfolded in the nothingness of Dark Sea One. He felt a dull shame descend upon him for having surrendered. He wanted to curl up and go to sleep; but his heart would not allow him to do so as long as Yil, Malika, and the others were captive.

A light surrounded him and he felt himself being pulled away from his physical body. It was as though he was now in spirit and distanced somehow from the whole process. He was aware of Malika's spirit beside his, and he remembered her advice about fighting the chip with the spirit as opposed to the mind.

They watched at a distance as the Gial-Ackbar-Bot was led by the Malika one to a work-station. He began to automatically process armor plating, as if being fed his orders from the central source within the Base.

As a physical being, Gial dimly remembered that he had come here for some purpose; but he was not quite sure what it was anymore. A thought emerged in his mind of destroying the "central source", but every time the idea surfaced he was given a jarring shock. He felt huge fear with regard to succumbing to "the source" and losing his autonomy, but he now felt conflicted in his relationship to it. He felt as though the main computer was like a life-line that he could not live without, and it kept him rooted in his terror of death.

A counter-phrase swam through his mind: "May The Force Be With You." Ackbar remembered his rite of purification through his solitary swim in the ocean. He felt The Force in his soul as the true "central source" of the Universe. As he contemplated this, he again felt himself as his spirit, floating a little above his physical body. He was aware of another presence, one that was deeply cherished in his heart. He saw a vision of Yil in a flowing white gown, and her eyes were full of the life and laughter that they had shared only yesterday. She seemed to be less connected to her physical body than he was, which gave him comfort.

" _At least her soul is free,"_ he thought. He was not surprised that the machine was unable to control the spirit of Yil Shod. As he thought about it, he became aware of a great many spirits, all hovering over their robotic bodies waiting to see if it was time to leave or to stay on the physical plane of existence. They were both Mon Cal and Quarren, and yet together they were much more than that. It was as though they were all interconnected...something like the Computer Base, except that they were living spirits.

"None of us are dead, Gial," he heard the voice of Yil speak into his mind, "and you will not die, do you understand? You will help your friends to save the people here, and then you will go on to help others fight the darkness on our world and in our galaxy."

Gial saw an opening up of the darkness around him, and he saw sacred tears of light dropping through it.

"Yil," he called out to her in desperation, "If I am to fight this, then tell me what to do...this is your opportunity to nag me the hell out of this mess!"

Gial saw a pattern emerge within the "tears of light". It was star-shaped, and it was in the middle of a circle, which was in turn inside a machine-cube. As he beheld it, his surroundings seemed to change. He had left the work-room where his body was working mindlessly and he was now hovering above the Human, Dagon Kallesto. The Doctor had succeeded in breaking into the Central Command Core, which meant that Zarrob's team must have accomplished their mission of inserting the virus into the control mechanisms.

Dagon was in a tiny, cubic space which was at the center of Dark Sea One; but he was having trouble finding the correct pattern that he needed to shut the operation down. There were apparently a myriad of patterns involved in finding the correct series of numbers to bypass the security code, and he was at a loss as to which one to choose. Gial needed to find a way to communicate the shapes that Yil had shown him.

"Dagon!" he called to him, but of course he could not hear.

The Human was far too lost in his concentration to be open to voices of the spirit. Gial could see the beads of sweat running down his face, and he could feel the man's anguished desperation. Instead of using words, Gial decided to try inserting the "star-inside-circle-in-a-cube" logo directly into Dagon's brain. He used his experience of being "chipped" in the head with an insertion gun, imagining himself inserting the pattern straight into Dagon Kallesto's sub-conscious mind. He continued to use this odd method of telepathic communication until a look of recognition came to the man's face.

"Star in a Circle," Dagon murmured, "five points, five spaces...five times five is twenty-five...inside a cube...six sides...times twenty-five is one hundred and fifty—one, five, zero...I need one more number..."

The image of a circle was transmitted to Gial from Yil, this time with Dagon in the middle of it. Gial "inserted" the image into his mind once again.

"One circle...ONE...Dagon," Kallesto murmured, entering the last item in the numeric code, "Day-Gone, the Day is Gone...Dark Nest...darkness, nothing...ness...oblivion?"

Gial understood from his spirit's point of view that Dagon was trying to find the correct password through his knowledge of ancient galactic sounds and symbols.

A circular pattern emerged, but this time it appeared directly over Dagon's head. A look of hopeful inspiration came to him.

"We'll give it a try," he said to himself, "Since we'll all be going there anyways, in a minute. Okay—One, five, zero, one, Oblivion, zero..."

He paused for a moment before resuming.

"All...1501Oblivion0Infinite=Nothing + All=One and the same thing...nothing and everything is ALL...zero plus one equals ONE, Eternity...1501000EternalOne...well, what do you know! Darkness plus Light still equals The Light...two sides of the same coin, the Real and the Un-real."

As he punched in the numeric and symbolic elements of the elusive code, the dull hum that permeated the room fell silent.

Gial felt his spirit being pulled from its place of observation in the Central Command Core back into his dense, material body. He sunk into it, experiencing a degree of disorientation. As he returned to himself, he realized that the metal chunk inside his brain seemed to have been de-activated for the time being. He looked around himself and realized that the Block-Bots had also been neutralized.

Before he could do or say anything, pandemonium suddenly broke loose. The inmates had discovered that their minds were no longer prisoners of the main computer and were attacking the droids with whatever instruments they could find.

"Stop!" he ordered them, "We all need to get out of here before this thing shuts down the life support!"

A red beam of light emerged from the iron belt of the Yil-Bot, who was obviously still operational. She shot at the inmates, dispersing them neatly with a blast to the Droid-Bot that they had been attacking. They scattered in all directions, panic-stricken. It seemed as if the "supervisors" were equipped with a stand-by power source to protect the Base in the event of a shut-down. Gial ran behind one of the carts of metal ore, remembering that he still had a small weapon concealed within his jacket. He pulled it out as Yil trained her beam at Malika and her father Salamar, who were still dazed and had not yet realized that they were free to escape if they so chose.

"Please, forgive me, Yil," Gial said to the spirit of his Beloved One, pressing the discharge button and aiming the blast at her heart.

His aim was slightly off, and she fell to the ground wounded while three other "supervisors" began to follow Yil's lead and shoot towards the cart that Gial was hiding behind. Fortunately, their aim was off as well. Zarrob and two of his surviving men burst into the work-room and shot the remaining supervisors dead. Zarrob was about to fire at Yil, but Gial ran to the center of the room and kneeled at Yil's side.

"Don't shoot, Zarrob, it's my wife," he cried, taking off his jacket and shirt and attempting to bandage the gaping wound just below her heart.

The "Spider-device" that had been attached to her temple fell off and began to writhe mechanically on the floor. Gial shot it out of existence immediately.

"Come on, Ackbar!" the Quarren shouted, "Pick up your wife and let's run...we've only got a few more minutes left before the shuttle bays close down. Kallesto has been busy herding as many workers as he can into one of their carrier-crafts, but he's got to get our own shuttle moving now..."

"Is there one named Kabba among the workers?" Malika asked desperately, having joined them with her father Salamar, "He's my Uncle, and it was his craft that brought us down here after the attack on the city..."

"Kabba is with us," Zarrob told her, pulling the girl along with them as they strode towards the exit corridor, "We've been remotely messing with his obedience chip and using him as a kind of double agent since we've been here. He's fine, now...he'll be piloting the workers' escape-craft, but you don't have time to get there. You and your father are to come with us in our shuttle...Kallesto's brought it up to the bay at this level."

"Let's go!" Ackbar yelled, picking Yil up in his arms and running with Zarrob and the others towards the shuttle bay.


	10. Tears of Light

3

 _ **Chapter Ten: Tears of Light**_

Dr. Kallesto beckoned Gial inside the make-shift Medical Bay aboard the bathysphere. Yil lay in a shallow water-cot, her breathing labored. Bracken and Malika were already kneeling on the floor beside her, but Malika arose and made room for Yil's mate.

He fell to his knees, the sorrow in his heart nearly crushing him. Their mission had been successful, but they had paid a terrible price. As Admiral Basskin and his crew guided the bathysphere slowly up out of the darkness towards the surface of the ocean, Malika had used her instrument to take the neutralized "obedience chips" out of Yil, Gial, and her father Salamar. The larger, supervisory mind-mechanism had fallen out of Yil once it had detected that she was fatally wounded but the original, failed obedience chip was still in her brain and needed to be taken out. That final piece of indignity had been removed from her once Dr. Kallesto had finished dressing her wound. It soon became apparent, however, that Yil was not going to survive her terrible ordeal.

Dagon and Malika exited sadly, leaving the two males to spend a few last moments with their cherished family member.

Yil had been speaking slowly with Bracken before Gial had entered. Bracken now hung his head, his hands clutching his cranium in unrelenting grief.

The injured mother opened her eyes, which held a small spark of life in them—for now. She took a deep breath of air and summoned her speaking strength.

"Listen, my two beautiful boys," she whispered laboriously, "I want you two to make peace, immediately. There's not much time left. Bracken...tell your father about the egg."

Bracken brought his head up to face his father. When he had heard that Gial had been the one to administer the fatal blast to his mother's body, he had stared at him with a look of unmitigated hatred before clawing at him with his webbed fingers. Basskin had stopped him from attacking his father and had calmed him down, but Gial had not attempted to defend himself. He did not blame the boy for feeling the way he did, because he felt the same way about himself. Zarrob had tried to explain the situation to Bracken, but in his grief he was not able to listen.

He stared back at his son now, the right side of his face scarred by the clawing he had received from him.

"I'm sorry, Bracken," he finally apologized to the boy, feeling woefully inadequate, "I was supposed to be the one to protect and defend your mother. Instead of saving her, I killed her."

Yil's hand reached up out of the water to touch her mate's scars.

"Gial," she told him firmly, her strength willing her voice into speech, "You _have_ saved me, you idiot. The being you know as Yil Shod will die, but her spirit will reach the Light. You have helped to rescue me from the darkness, and I demand that you feel no shame. Bracken, that goes for you too...would you have wanted him to let me kill Malika while I was under the influence of that thing? You find a way to forgive your father, and you both move on with your lives...and that's an order, you two pain-in-the-kick-ass Military Goldfishes!"

"Captain Ackbar," Bracken began stiffly, "I mean, Father...Admiral Basskin explained to me about the situation and why you had to do what you did. Thank you for saving Malika and her father...I'm so sorry for clawing your face, but I just went crazy when I heard about Mama. I want you to know that I understand in my mind, but I'm still trying to forgive you in my heart. I know I'll get there, but...it may take some time."

Gial reached over Yil's body to clasp his son's hand.

"Tell him, Bracken," Yil insisted, "about the egg."

"Papa," Bracken explained, "While Dr. Kallesto was working on Mama, a fertilized egg dropped out of her into the water cot. Mama wants Malika and I to raise the Tad as our own with Malika's parents, in our home...we just found out that her mother Siska was selling seaweed at the time of the attack and she was neither captured nor injured. Anyways, I'll shut up now and let Mama tell you what she can."

Yil reached out of the water-cot to hold her husband's hands in hers. Bracken let go of his father's grasp and instead stroked his mother's head while she was speaking.

"Gial," she said to him, "Know that I will always love you, and our children. I have seen in my spirit-state a certain vision of the future. The Tad which has barely formed within the egg will be a female...our daughter, Gial. She will be raised by Bracken and Malika as their child, however..."

"I understand, my love," Gial murmured to her, his voice breaking, "After what I have done, I do not deserve to be her father."

"No, you silly fish, you'll be her Grandfather!" Yil chided him, "and I'm not saying this to punish you. I know from my time as a Techno-Foreman that The Base of Operations which you just helped to shut down was built a long time ago, by a race now long dead. They died of their own poisonous hatred and descended into nothingness, but their droid-operated Deep-Sea Station was somehow awakened by another, new Dark Power. This darkness will come to Mon Cala, Gial. You will be needed by the King and all our people, and you will protect them. You will need to put all of your efforts into fighting this power, and eventually you will join others and help to protect the Galaxy..."

Yil paused, breaking into a fit of coughing. Gial held her hands tightly. His wife needed to focus on her breathing rather than speaking to him, but once the cough had subsided, she stubbornly continued her instructions.

"Gial, my Beloved Mate!" she cried to him, "Our son Bracken will also be one of those who works to free Mon Cala. Promise me that both of you will work together to protect Malika's family, and our Granddaughter."

"I promise it, Mama," Bracken whispered to her.

"I promise it, Yil Shod, to you, our son, and our un-birthed daughter as she forms in the egg..." Gial told her, "and I promise never to take a mate after you have gone. I will never love another as I have loved you."

"No, you won't...not like me," she rasped in between breaths, "But you'll have your dalliances, and I don't want you to feel guilty about that...I didn't marry you because of your propensity towards celibacy, you damn kick-ass Goldfish."

With those words, Yil Shod sunk below the water in her bed, her last bubbles of breath popping up towards the surface and her gills growing still. Gial felt his vision become glassy, and in that glass he saw tears of light dropping into a pool of darkness. Out of one fallen tear, he saw his Beloved One swimming purposefully toward the Light.


	11. Epilogue: Restoration and Healing

3

 _ **Epilogue: Restoration and Healing**_

Gial sat by the ocean shore on a large rock. He dipped his webbed feet in the waves and let them lap over his legs. Inside, he felt empty.

He was exhausted. He had just attended the final memorial service for Yil. There had been three of them in the past month since she had died: the family service, the memorial at the University where Yil had taught Mon Calamari literature, and the community service that he and his family had just attended, along with thousands of other people from all around the world of Mon Cala and even beyond it.

King Yos Kolina had attended with his family to pay their respects, which did not surprise Gial in the least. As the King's advisor, Gial had brought Yil with him to attend many of the King's functions over the years, and the Ruler had developed a very high opinion of Yil.

The Quarren Ambassador Quid'aihl Mirrtra, who had joined the mission with them in Basskin's bathysphere, had also come; and joining him was his long-time nemesis, the Mon Calamari Ambassador Vax Keltsin. After Mirrtra had delivered his report on the mission to the local Quarren government and to the King and his Calamari Council, he and Ambassador Keltsin had decided to issue a joint statement. They praised all those, both Quarren and Mon Calamari, who had worked together so selflessly on the mission; and as well they acknowledged those who had lost their lives on Dark Sea One, including Yil.

There had been others who had died on the Deep-Sea Base besides Yil. Tarnus Zarrob had lost three of his Quarren militia men while attempting to access the control room to perform their part in the shut-down of the base. As well, there were the three other "supervisors" back at the DS1 work-room who had been shot dead by Zarrob's remaining team; and Gial had made sure that they were identified so that their families could be notified. He knew that he and Bracken had been fortunate to free their loved one from the clutches of the Computer-Brain interface, and especially to have had a short time with her to say good-bye before she died.

The other families, however, had been forced to not only deal with their loved ones' deaths, but also with the fact that they had been mentally enslaved and were working for a destructive force when they died. Gial had gone to their funerals and had attempted to convey to them his experience of being in the spirit while he had been "chipped". He wanted them to know that the other captives had also remained in this stasis of the spirit, hovering near their bodies until it was determined whether they would live or die. He very much wanted the families to have the comfort of knowing that their loved ones' spirits were free when they left the physical realm.

After they had returned, both he and his son had busied themselves with helping in the clean-up and restoration process of their city while Malika and her family took charge of Yil's egg. Their rented home had been destroyed in the attack, but the Shod family home had been spared; and so, the Ronnans had gratefully moved in. Malika's Uncle Kabba, the former nomad-turned-kidnapper, also came to live with them after he had been cleared of almost all wrongdoing. He was ordered by the City Judge to perform community service to atone for the pain he had caused, but it had been determined that he had been implanted with a chip and was therefore acting against his will when he "rescued" Yil, Malika, Salamar, and the others and brought them down to the Base after the attack had thrown everything into disarray. Nonetheless, Kabba had felt extremely guilty for his part in the dark scheme, and had made sure that all the slum-dwelling survivors had their "obedience chips" removed. He and his brother Salamar then helped them to find homes, showing them how to access their Cities' counseling services in order to aid their healing and eventually improve their lives.

As Gial reflected on the events of the past month, he realized that he had not given himself much time to process his grief. He felt lost without Yil, but he knew that he needed to soldier on in order to fulfill his promise to his wife. He knew that he could protect his family, but protecting the entire world and even the galaxy seemed unbelievably overwhelming right now. He took a breath of air and let it out slowly so that he could calm his mind.

As he relaxed slightly, he thought of his son: Bracken was actually faring much better than his father. He had announced to Malika and the family his " _Promise-to-Marry_ " the other day, and after the period of bereavement was over he intended to do just that. Gial was proud of him for how much he had been taking responsibility since his return. Bracken was taking his mother's last instructions very seriously, and he was preparing to become the best father that he could possibly be to the hatchling in the precious egg that they had delivered from the deepest depths into their home birthing pond. He had been asking Gial many questions about fatherhood, and the two of them had found time in the evening to sit by the un-hatched egg, speaking softly to it and even singing it some of Yil's favorite lullabies. Bracken and Malika had decided to name their developing daughter Giala Yil Ackbar, after her biological parents. Gial was deeply touched that they wanted to name her after him as well as Yil, for he knew that his mate's departed spirit would be very pleased by their choice.

He knew that Yil would be so proud of Bracken, as he was, for the adult decisions the young man was now making. Admiral Basskin had also been very impressed by Bracken and had requested that he take up a new position as his aide. Along with the help of the indefatigable Dr. Dagon Kallesto, they would soon be working towards the next phase of the mission, which was to involve re-building Dark Sea One and transforming it into a research station. The proposed Deep Sea One Research Station would work for the benefit of the people of Mon Cala as opposed to causing them harm.

Captain Ackbar and the Mon Cala Guard were to work cooperatively with Basskin and his naval forces in order to make sure that the droid-installed weapon arrays which had launched the "Red-Beam" attacks on their world's cities were completely dismantled. Their work would not be accomplished overnight, but Gial and his people were more determined than ever to work with each other as a Unified Force to protect their sacred planet from the new Dark Powers that, as Yil had predicted, were due to arrive some time soon.


End file.
